24.11.2018

Marlow Stern stellt die aktuelle Netflix-Dokumentation "Terrorism Close Calls" vor, der zufolge es US-Behörden in den Jahren nach dem 11. September 2001 gelungen ist, mehrere massive Terroranschläge zu verhindern. "The new docuseries Terrorism Close Calls, now streaming on Netflix, chronicles some of the biggest attempted terrorist attacks that were foiled just under the wire. Its fifth episode is dedicated to the Transatlantic Liquid Bomb Plot, wherein two dozen terrorists planned to smuggle plastic bottles filled with liquid explosives (and other devices) onto seven commercial airliners departing from London’s Heathrow Airport and traveling to North America, assemble the bombs onboard, and detonate them over the Atlantic Ocean. 'The British cell was planning to smuggle those liquid bombs onto planes and blow up seven airliners heading to North America, with at least 1,500 people onboard. That would have made it the biggest loss of life since 9/11,' Mark Kelton, former CIA chief of European operations, tells The Daily Beast. 'And if the bombs had gone off over a populated area, the casualties would have gone up exponentially.'"

02.11.2018

Das Pentagon habe Vorbereitungen für einen Cyberangriff gegen Russland getroffen, um auf eine mögliche russische Beeinflussung der anstehenden Kongresswahlen reagieren zu können, berichtet Zachary Fryer-Biggs vom Center for Public Integrity. "The U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon have quietly agreed on the outlines of an offensive cyberattack that the United States would unleash if Russia electronically interferes with the 2018 midterm election on Nov. 6, according to current and former senior U.S. officials who are familiar with the plan. In preparation for its potential use, U.S. military hackers have been given the go-ahead to gain access to Russian cybersystems that they feel is needed to let the plan unfold quickly, the officials said. The effort constitutes one of the first major cyberbattle plans organized under a new government policy enabling potential offensive operations to proceed more quickly once the parameters have been worked out in advance and agreed among key agencies."

01.08.2018

Ein Video der Erschießung von zwei Frauen und zwei Kindern durch mutmaßliche Regierungssoldaten in Kamerun hat Philip Obaji Jr. zufolge verdeutlicht, mit welchen Mitteln der Kampf gegen die Terrorgruppe Boko Haram, aber auch gegen Separatisten im Westen des Landes geführt wird. "(...) this hideous incident caught on video is just one of a growing number of cases of Cameroonian soldiers brutally targeting women and children. This is happening in the far north, where Boko Haram fighters have in the last four years mounted suicide attacks and kidnappings, but also in northwestern and southwestern Cameroon, where government forces have been battling English-speaking separatists who are clamoring for independence from the mostly French-speaking nation. (...) 'The soldiers are targeting wives and children of men they suspect belong to the separatist movement,' Bernard Nyong, who fled the conflict in Akwaya community in southwest Cameroon to the Nigerian border town of Ikom in Cross River state, told The Daily Beast. 'Killing a member of your family is the punishment you get for asking for independence from Cameroon.'"

02.05.2018

Im US-Gefangenenlager Guantanamo werden Spencer Ackerman zufolge Vorbereitungen für die Aufnahme neuer Häftlinge getroffen. Dies habe das Pentagon am Mittwoch bestätigt. "In what amounts to a fulfilled campaign promise for Donald Trump, who had pledged to refill Guantanamo with 'some bad dudes,' Defense Secretary Jim Mattis delivered a long-expected detentions policy to the White House, a day after the deadline set by Trump’s January executive order paving the way for new Guantanamo detainees. (...) Much remains unclear about the new policy, which neither the Pentagon nor the White House released. The criteria for determining the threshold for a detainee’s 'continuing, significant threat' was not defined, nor was who within the chain of command will be empowered to recommend that decision. National Security Council representatives did not immediately respond to questions."

10.01.2018

Am Freitag muss US-Präsident Trump entscheiden, ob er eine Reihe von Sanktionen des US-Kongresses gegen den Iran weiter aussetzen und damit eine Voraussetzung zum Überleben des Atomvertrags schaffen wird. Betsy Woodruff und Spencer Ackerman berichten, dass der Nationale Sicherheitsberater H.R. McMaster hinter den Kulissen mit Senatoren zusammenarbeite, um den Bestand des Vertrags zu sichern. "According to multiple sources, H.R. McMaster is reprising the role he played last fall: removing a legislative irritant from Trump so that the president can quietly remain in the deal. This time around, sources told The Daily Beast, McMaster is searching for an agreement, even one just in principle, with the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to convince Trump that the president’s decision to 'de-certify' Iran’s compliance last fall pressured Congress to modify its terms. (...) multiple sources said McMaster considers that an agreement with Sens. Bob Corker and Ben Cardin that took away the congressional deadlines on Iran that Trump hates would be a face-saving way for the White House to accept the deal."

29.11.2017

Christina Goldbaum präsentiert in diesem Exklusivbericht Belege, die darauf hindeuten, dass Mitglieder einer US-Spezialeinheit in Somalia im August zehn Zivilisten getötet haben. "The details that emerged paint a damning picture of at least one U.S. ground operation in the African nation. This includes U.S. Special Operators firing upon unarmed civilians, using human intelligence from sources widely considered untrustworthy to Somalis in the region as well as government officials, and instructing their Somali counterparts to collect weapons that were being stored inside a home — not displaced on the field in the course of the firefight — and placing them beside the bodies of those killed prior to photographing them. (...) in addition to foolhardy planning of the hold-terrain operation, the Americans also appeared to be woefully unaware that in this vast and forest-rich region, Al Shabaab isn’t the only factor contributing to instability. Further complicating the security landscape is the ongoing conflict among Somali clans, primarily the Habar Gidr and Biyomal."

22.10.2017

Nach dem Tod von vier US-Soldaten in Niger haben führende US-Senatoren Betsy Woodruff zufolge eingestanden, dass sie bis zur entsprechenden Meldung nichts über das Ausmaß des dortigen Einsatzes gewusst hätten. Bisher stelle allerdings nur eine Minderheit der Senatoren die bisherige Praxis in Frage, bei der Auslandseinsätze im Antiterrorkampf ohne explizite Zustimmung des Kongresses durchgeführt werden können. "Though a bipartisan group of Senators have introduced an updated AUMF [Authorization of Use of Military Force] for counter-terror operations, congressional leaders have declined to act on it. The Obama administration had called for an updated AUMF as well. And, recently, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) called for a 'sober national conversation about Congress’ constitutional role in authorizing the use of military force.' (...) If members of Congress have to vote on such a matter, many expect to face political blowback. And the consequences aren’t hypothetical; there’s wide agreement that Hillary Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq War played a key role in her defeat in the 2008 Democrat presidential primary."

15.07.2017

Angesichts des internationalen Rückzugs der USA unter Präsident Trump hoffen viele, dass Deutschland eine neue Führungsrolle in der westlichen Welt übernehmen wird. James Kirchick glaubt allerdings nicht, dass die Bundesrepublik für diese Rolle qualifiziert wäre. "The liberal world order that Washington constructed with its allies in the wake of the World War II is ultimately undergirded by America’s enormous and unmatched military power and reach. Seven decades after that devastating conflict, Germany remains a nation wedded to pacifism. (...) Proclaiming Germany the new leader of the free world feeds into a particularly noxious German trait: self-righteousness. (...) America’s geography, sheer size, military prowess, and unique history as a propositional nation of immigrants with universal values make it the only country capable of leading the community of democratic nations against the free world’s many and determined enemies. This is why Trump’s abdication of America’s traditional leadership role is so dangerous and so grave: there is no one, not even a well-meaning German Chancellor, prepared to replace it."

03.07.2017

Roy Scranton fragt angesichts der Entsendung von 4.000 US-Truppen nach Afghanistan, welchen Sinn dieser 16 Jahre lang dauernde Krieg heute noch habe. "Are we there to bring democracy to the Afghans? Are we there to hunt terrorists? Are we there for women’s rights? Are we trying to 'win,' or just trying to get out? We’ve 'turned a corner' so many times we don’t even know which way we’re going. (...) American foreign policy stopped making sense 16 years ago, when we turned the hunt for a group of criminals into a global war without end, and it grew even more absurd when we launched an aggressive war against a sovereign nation on a pretext of lies. The chaos of American foreign policy today under Donald Trump is no more than the consequence and continuation of the last 16 years".

06.04.2017

Florian Neuhof beschreibt die andauernden Kämpfe zur Vertreibung des "Islamischen Staates" aus der irakischen Stadt Mossul als das größte "Geiseldrama" der Geschichte. "ISIS’s hold on Mosul has gradually been reduced in five months of fierce fighting. The militants still control the city’s historic core and the northwestern suburbs, and, if such a thing is conceivable, are increasingly brutal in their efforts to slow the Iraqi advance. Civilians are forced to move farther into the city as the jihadists retreat, flooding an ever shrinking area with people. The houses and buildings that the so-called Islamic State widely known as ISIS uses to fire at the military often shelter several families, human shields to deter the use of coalition air power. Anyone trying to cross the front lines is shot at, and civilians frequently are killed as they attempt to flee."

05.04.2017

US-Präsident Trump hat seinen Amtsvorgänger Obama für den Tod von über 70 Zivilisten durch chemische Kampfstoffe in Syrien mitverantwortlich gemacht, da Obama im Jahr 2013 die von ihm gesetzte "rote Linie" missachtet und die Assad-Regierung nicht für einen Chemiewaffeneinsatz in der Nähe von Damaskus bestraft habe. Christopher Dickey schreibt, dass sich über den Hergang der damaligen Ereignisse ein Narrativ durchgesetzt habe, das nicht der Realität entspreche. "In the years since, I have grown weary of the taken-for-granted truism that Obama failed on the chemical-weapons front in Syria. It betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the impact such nerve agents can have. I covered the effects of chemical war in Iraq in the 1980s and early 1990s, and I know that as horrific as the scenes in Syria have been, they pale by comparison to what Saddam Hussein was doing back then in tacit alliance with the United States and its Gulf Arab allies. (...) As bad as it was, the Obama-Putin deal in 2013 prevented Assad from stampeding his opposition in that way. And it’s clear Assad wished he still had such resources, which is why he has improvised many chemical attacks with the much cruder and less effective industrial chlorine gas."

21.02.2017

Das widersprüchliche Auftreten des Weißen Hauses und der US-Regierung wirke auf europäische Politiker wie ein "Horrorfilm", schreibt Christopher Dickey. "European politicians and policy makers have begun to feel they’re watching a horror movie: the tale of an American administration with a split personality as sinister as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — the first perfectly reasonable and sociable, the other monstrous, unable, and unwilling to control its impulses. (...) At the Munich conference, when Pence made his appearance, he struck many in the audience as 'somebody attempting to and succeeding in projecting the image of someone who is mainstream,' said one participant. The vice president spoke in the dulcet tones he learned working as a radio and TV talk show host. And, as the same observer put it, the sentences Pence spoke 'had a subject and a verb—we are not used to this anymore.' 'I had the impression he was positioning himself as Gerry Ford,' said this participant, alluding to the man who became vice president and then president as the government of Richard Nixon collapsed in 1974. As Heisbourg put it, Pence gave the impression that 'if stuff happens, there will be an adult around.'"

09.01.2017

Der Tod des früheren iranischen Präsidenten Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani könnte die Position der konservativen Kräfte in Iran stärken, schreibt Reza Haghighat Nejad. Dem Moderator Rafsanjani sei es lange gelungen, eine Balance zwischen Hardlinern und Reformern aufrecht zu erhalten, sein Tod könnte ein politisches Vakuum entstehen lassen. "President Hassan Rouhani’s reformist government will be the first to suffer from the fallout. With presidential elections later this year - just like the difficult days after the nuclear agreement was signed, which saw hardliners condemn the deal - Rouhani will need political support for his reelection. But with Rafsanjani gone, and no other reformist benefactor of his stature, Rouhani will be forced to fight hordes of hardliners and principlists on his own."

29.11.2016

US-Spezialeinheiten seien dabei, im Nahen Osten einen geheimen Stützpunkt für eine permanente verdeckte Kriegsführung gegen mutmaßliche Terroristen einzurichten, berichtet Kimberly Dozier. "Preparing for a multi-generational, international fight against terrorists, U.S. special operations chiefs are launching a new counterterrorist nerve center at an undisclosed location in the Middle East to fight the so-called Islamic State, al Qaeda, and any other terrorist actor. The Joint Special Operations Command, the U.S. military’s premier counterterrorist strike force, is expanding its existing targeting nerve center in the region to make space for more American terror hunting personnel from three-letter agencies like the CIA, NSA, and FBI to foreign partners like Britain, France, Iraq and Jordan. (...) 'This has been going on,' said a senior U.S. official briefed on the expanded mission. 'We’re just putting it on steroids.'"

28.11.2016

Nancy A. Youssef macht darauf aufmerksam, dass die syrische Regierung nicht nur in Aleppo, sondern auch in der Hauptstadt Damaskus vor wichtigen Territorialgewinnen stehe. Damit schwänden auch die Möglichkeiten der USA, den Ausgang des Krieges durch Unterstützung "moderater" Rebellen zu beeinflussen. "The regime’s sweep of areas around Damascus this week has been swift and aggressive. In the last two days, the regime reclaimed control of the city of al-Tall, north of Damascus, shortly after reaching an evacuation agreement. On Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 1,400 civilians and 1,450 rebels boarded 42 government buses and another 25 ambulances filled with injured residents and left the Damascus suburb of Khan al-Shih, the only opposition held area on a key route southwest of the capital. (...) And in Ghouta, a city east of Damascus (the eastern part of which the regime hit with a sarin gas attack in 2013), the Syrian Army has made advances as Russian forces have ramped up airstrikes."

18.10.2016

Teile des organisierten Verbrechens in Italien pflegen laut der Zeitung La Stampa geschäftliche Verbindungen zum "Islamischen Staat" in Libyen. Einer Recherche zufolge liefern die Kriminellen den Dschihadisten Waffen und erhalten im Gegenzug wertvolle Artefakte. "The Italian criminal gangs reportedly acquire the artifacts from jihadi tomb raiders in Libya in exchange for a wide range of weaponry, including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades that the Camorra have in great supply from a long-standing arms-trafficking racket with Russia, Moldova, and the Ukraine. The weapons are either smuggled back to Libya on the same container ships or left in Europe to be picked up by foreign fighters here."

Steckt Russland hinter den aktuellen Enthüllungen von WikiLeaks, die von US-Demokraten als russische Beeinflussung der Präsidentschaftswahl kritisiert werden? Nancy A. Youssef und Shane Harris schreiben, dass die US-Geheimdienste keineswegs sicher seien, dass WikiLeaks tatsächlich Anordnungen aus Moskau folge. "Military and intelligence officials are convinced that WikiLeaks is an ongoing threat to U.S. national security and privacy owing to its leaks of classified documents and emails. But its precise relationship with Russia has been a subject of internal debate. Some do see the group as being in cahoots with the Kremlin. But others find that WikiLeaks is acting mainly as the beneficiary of stolen documents, not unlike a journalistic organization. The intelligence agencies’ carefully worded statement last week about Russia’s role in hacking the DNC and other organizations suggests that there’s no consensus on precisely how WikiLeaks and Russia work together."

04.10.2016

Nicholas Jubber fürchtet, dass sich der Versuch des "Islamischen Staates", in Libyen die Kontrolle zu übernehmen, in anderen Ländern Afrikas wiederholen könnte. "In an essay translated by the Quilliam Foundation, an ISIS supporter identifies Libya as a 'strategic gateway' from which 'pandemonium could be wrought in the southern Europe.' Even more than Syria, the fate of Libya is likely to color the next president’s foreign policy. While Syria has been a whirlpool, sucking in the most toxic elements in the region, Libya is a sandstorm, spreading its mayhem outward. According to the ISIS supporter’s essay, Libya is 'the key to Egypt, the key to Tunisia, Sudan, Mali, Algeria and Niger too.'"

14.09.2016

David Axe berichtet, dass auch Saudi-Arabien nun zu den Ländern mit einer eigenen Kampfdrohnenflotte gehöre. Die Drohnen würden aus China geliefert und könnten im Krieg in Jemen eingesetzt werden. "As far as killer drones go, the Pterodactyl probably isn’t terribly sophisticated—its sensors are certainly less capable than U.S.-made models — and that can mean the difference between life and death for innocent people caught in the crossfire as flying robots hunt militants on the ground. (...) The Saudi drone acquisition, for its part, could mean 'grim news, especially for Yemenis,' Andrew Cockburn, author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins, told The Daily Beast. Saudi Arabia’s Sunni regime has been bombing Shia rebels in Yemen for years, with a major escalation beginning in March 2015. The Saudi air campaign has killed thousands of civilians and destroyed irreplaceable ancient sites. Riyadh wants the drones to help improve its targeting. But robotic aircraft don’t always make airstrikes more ethical. They can even have the opposite effect."

10.09.2016

Ende 2003 habe es in den US-Geheimdiensten ernsthafte Sorgen über einen nuklearen Terroranschlag der Al-Qaida in Washington gegeben, berichtet Shane Harris. Es seien sogar Vorbereitungen für eine Übertragung von Geheimdienstaufgaben an die britischen Verbündeten getroffen worden. "Amid that massive amount of chatter, NSA officials and others were seeing the same threat made repeatedly: that al Qaeda terrorists were planning to detonate a nuclear device in or around Washington, D.C. The intelligence wasn’t specific enough to guide officials to a bomb. But the threat was also too significant to ignore. 'Intelligence said there was very likely' a nuclear device that 'could affect command and control systems in Washington,' a former U.S. official who was directly involved in efforts to verify the intelligence and prepare for a possible detonation told The Daily Beast. 'The concern was that it would be catastrophic.'"

02.09.2016

Nancy A. Youssef berichtet, dass die US-Regierung und das US-Militär bemüht seien, noch vor dem Abtritt von Präsident Obama im Januar entscheidende Siege im Kampf gegen den "Islamischen Staat" zu präsentieren. "(...) those with a political bent are pushing for the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi forces to move into Mosul before the end of the Obama administration term so it can end on the cusp of a major battlefield win, one U.S. official told The Daily Beast. (...) It makes some sense: What general would want to leave a war to Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump? (...) The top U.S. commander in Iraq in charge of the war against ISIS that the cities of Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, capitals in the self-proclaimed caliphate, could both fall within a year. 'I don’t want to make promises, but I intend to have Mosul and Raqqa done on my watch,' Army Gen. Lt. Gen. Joseph Townsend said last month upon taking command."

30.08.2016

Jüngst geleakte interne Dokumente der Terrormiliz "Islamischer Staat" zeichnen ein Bild einer von finanziellen Veruntreuungen, Unterschlagungen, sowie bürokratischen Gerangel geschlagenen Terrororganisation, berichtet Michael Weiss auf the daily beast. "The documents are mainly bits of correspondence between other ISIS officials and are embarrassing to a messianic movement that proclaims it is growing in strength and expanding its dominions in spite of nearly three years of attritional warfare and battlefield losses across Iraq and Syria."

29.08.2016

Anna Nemtsova berichtet von ihrem Besuch an der Grenze zwischen Russland und seinen baltischen Nachbarn. Dort bekommt sie auf der einen Seite die enormen Spannungen der Menschen vor Ort zu spüren, auf der anderen Seite aber auch die Schönheit der Natur, die auf beiden Seiten mit Überraschungen aufwarte. "To some older Lithuanians, whose youth was spent in the Soviet Union, especially to those who frequently travel to Russia for business or leisure, the idea of militarization and potential war with the neighbor simply sounds wild. 'If we do not listen to news about constant war games all around us, it all seems the same peaceful Baltics; but then we visit our friends in St. Petersburg and they tell us that EU propaganda turns us into zombies…,' my fellow passenger on the bus, Agota Virgilijus, told me, letting the words trail off. She looked outside at families packing their car trunks with baskets full of mushrooms and added: 'The sun, the dunes, and Baltic Sea are the same on both sides of the border of the Curonian Spit,' she said. 'And so are the mushrooms.'"

14.08.2016

Der "Islamische Staat" verfolge mit seinen Ablegern und Verbündeten in Europa und Afrika das klare Ziel, so viele Christen wie möglich zu töten, schreibt Philip Obaji Jr., Menschenrechtsaktivist aus Nigeria. Auch der Führungswechsel der Terrorgruppe Boko Haram sei ein Beleg für diese Strategie. "Boko Haram has lost ground to a more determined Nigerian military in recent months, and without territory it loses some of its draw for new recruits, but al-Barnawi’s anti-Christian focus is tried and tested by his mentors in the 'caliphate,' who want to keep the Nigerian conflict turned up to a full boil. Al-Barnawi’s anti-Christian rhetoric is already the focus of ISIS in Europe. On the day he was announced as Boko Haram’s new leader, ISIS used the latest issue of Dabiq to paint Christianity as a 'false' religion and Christians as 'cross worshippers.' It encouraged Muslims to attack churches in a ways similar to the atrocity in France last month, where two men entered a Catholic church in small town Normandy, slit the throat of an 86-year-old priest, and gravely wounded a nun."

10.08.2016

Michael Weiss zufolge mehren sich die Zeichen für den Ausbruch eines offenen Krieges im Osten der Ukraine. Moskau habe Kiew beschuldigt, Terroranschläge auf der Krim geplant zu haben. Zudem gebe es Berichte über russische Truppenbewegungen auf der Halbinsel. Trotz dieser Entwicklungen hält Weiss einen russischen Angriff bis auf weiteres für unwahrscheinlich. "Moscow needn’t invade Ukraine again to harm it, however. These military maneuvers in Crimea, and suspect FSB reports of 'terrorism,' still count as a form of psychological warfare designed to hurt Ukraine’s already bruised and battered economy, and perhaps also force Kiev into making a dangerous mistake that might cost it further. The worst would be reacting to a provocation in such a way that Russia can plausibly present itself as the victim rather than the aggressor. (...) It is possible, for instance, as a result of all the heightened anxiety, to conceive of Ukrainian commanders overreacting to troop movements at the Crimean frontier or shelling attacks in Donbas. (The Georgians made this miscalculation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, after all.) Russian-backed forces could always mount 'retaliatory' attacks or grant the Kremlin the opportunity to decry Ukrainian 'aggression' and go to war under the pretext of self-defense or 'humanitarian' urgency, perhaps unilaterally deploying 'peacekeeping' forces."

19.07.2016

Nach dem gescheiterten Putsch in der Türkei gebe es in der NATO ernste Zweifel an der Verlässlichkeit des türkischen Militärs, berichtet Michael Weiss. "Aaron Stein at the Atlantic Council nails the core problem when he asks, 'How can we credibly go to war with a NATO ally in coalition operations when that ally’s army is at war with itself?' Turkey, remember, has the second biggest army in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, after the United States. In the Cold War years, its borders with the Soviet Union were vital to Western strategy. In the age of jihad, the fact that its territory abuts not only ISIS-land, but Iran, gives it enormous geopolitical importance."

Die bislang geheimen 29 Seiten des 9/11-Reports des US-Senats sind veröffentlicht worden. Shane Harris schreibt, dass der Inhalt die Kontroverse um die angebliche Verwicklung saudi-arabischer Offizieller nicht beilegen wird. "Close watchers of the possible Saudi-9/11 connection will find few surprises. And the pages will settle no controversies.
But they did provide all sorts of tantalizing and inconclusive hints at links between the infamous al Qaeda terrorists and their supporters in the Saudi government - the very government that the terrorist group had vowed to destroy. (...) scanning through the 29 pages, one is immediately struck by the abundance of words like 'speculate' and 'allegations' and 'may have provided support.' Had the pages been released in their entirety, the congressional inquiry might very well have been accused of inciting a mob, publishing unproven and in some cases un-investigated allegations about specific individuals and their connection to the mass murder of 3,000 people."

15.06.2016

Der irakische Reporter Abdulla Hawez berichtet, dass die vor wenigen Wochen begonnene Schlacht um Falludscha immer noch andauere. Schiitischen Milizen werde mittlerweile vorgeworfen, zahlreiche Zivilisten der sunnitisch dominierten Stadt gefoltert und getötet zu haben. "(...) the largest obstacle seems to be absence of a clear strategy as each party is pursuing its own agenda. The first is ideological, led by Iranian spymaster and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps’s foreign Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani and the aforementioned Shia militias he supports. Their objective, judging from their sectarian rhetoric and pro-Iranian iconography, is to export Tehran’s Islamic Revolution to Mesopotamia, taking full advantage of the collapse in national security brought about by ISIS’s onslaught two years ago. The second agenda is nationalist in intent and led by al-Abadi, who hews closer to the U.S. line, and does not want to alienate or marginalize Sunnis. But with militia and government atrocities mounting, that may prove a foregone conclusion."

10.06.2016

Evan Barrett wirft der amerikanischen Linken vor, im Umgang mit dem Nahen Osten eine Scheinheiligkeit an den Tag zu legen, die an Rassismus grenze. "It has been rightly observed that the Republican Party’s long tolerance of racist attitudes set the stage for Donald Trump’s rise. But Democrats, too, are using expedient prejudice to drive their political agenda this cycle. Consider how the Obama White House has embraced talk about the 'backward' Middle East to account for their own staggering foreign-policy failures there. (...) Hillary Clinton remains admirably steadfast in her commitment to Middle East engagement, but she does so against a tide of new liberals who are fixated on problems at home, and who join many of their conservative counterparts in a bipartisan consensus of fear and bigotry."